Few people ever expect to have to deal with a public relations (PR) crisis until they are in the throes of one. To improve your organization’s ability to handle a PR crisis, plan your response beforehand. Consider the following four suggestions when planning your company’s crisis response:
- Create a crisis communication team who will be responsible for creating and executing the crisis response and managing the situation as it unfolds.
- Prepare a company fact sheet, listing information about your company to hand out if a crisis occurs.
- If a crisis occurs, do not wait too long to go public with any problem that affects your customers.
- Encourage company leaders and the crisis response team to think twice about the tone of any response they put out.